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On the Road: Toronto

As most of you know, I took a month hiatus from blogging from Mid-May until Mid-June. Posts were still scheduled, but I rarely interacted on the blog. So, today’s post is going to be a little different than my usual book-related discussions as I spotlight the highlights of my trip to Canada.

The experience itself was incredible overall. I met some amazing people, reconnected with my relatives, explored some epic cities, and learned a lot about myself along the way. I’ll go into details about that in a future post, but for today I’m going to talk about the first leg of my trip. Toronto.

Prior to flying out, I was a nervous wreck. I was excited to go. It had been 9 months of planning and saving and all of a sudden the day arrived, and it finally sunk in that I am going to Canada. Just so you know, I do not like airports. They stress me out so I was more than ready to just get on the plane and go. Thankfully, that part of the trip was over and done with relatively fast. The 6.45-hour flight wasn’t that bad, but I am not someone that can sit still for over 6 hours straight, so by the time I landed I was ready to just get to my hostel and call it a night.

I spent a total of 8 nights in Toronto for the first leg of this trip and I loved every minute of it. Not going to lie, the first day was a bit overwhelming. I’m a country girl from a village of about 100 people, and suddenly I find myself having to navigate my way around one of the most populous cities in the world. So you can see how that can be a bit daunting. However, when in doubt just wander. Personally, I find walking to be the best way to get to grips with a city so large. I had no idea where I was walking to most of the times, but along the way, I’d pinpoint some interesting locations and landmarks that would help me find my way back. It’s a flawed tactic, but it worked.

So, what did I see? A lot. On my first day, I walked through Kensington market, which was just around the corner from the hostel, tried some poutine, and went to a Baseball game. The Jays won, in case you’re wondering. I wanted to go to at least one sporting event when I was there and the tickets were so cheap. Admittedly, I’d never seen the appeal in Baseball. On TV it looked like a pretty dull game to follow, but being there made me see why people love it so much. The atmosphere takes the game to a whole new level, and it was so easy to get caught up in the frenzy of it all. I thought I’d have trouble following the rules of the game, but if you’ve played Rounders, it’s basically the same concept. It was a pretty full on day, but I got a good night sleep out of it.

This first week in Toronto consisted of me checking off a list of landmarks on the list. So, I visited the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium, walked through the distillery district, the Hockey Hall of Fame – I had no idea Tim Horton was a hockey player, explored the Royal Ontario Museum and Toronto Island. There was so much to take in and I barely scratched the surface.

One of the biggest highlights of this leg of the trip was meeting Joey, Jesse, and Maria. It was so much fun, and it was nice to get the chance to meet up with fellow bloggers. However, the experience of trying to work out how to use chop-sticks is a something no one should have to witness. I suck at it, but I’m told it was very entertaining to watch.

It would be so easy to talk about all of the great places I saw, but the highlight of my time in Toronto had to be the people I met. The vibe at the hostel was chilled and a lot of fun. It was so easy to strike up a conversation with someone you’d never met before, and everyone was so welcoming. It’s those people that make the memories worthwhile. They made it so hard for me to leave Toronto, but my time in Toronto was up (for the time), and it was time to visit my next destination. Canada’s capital, Ottawa.

Have you ever visited Toronto?
What was your highlight?Which city would you like to visit?

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12 thoughts on “On the Road: Toronto”

Aww! I love this wrap up! It was so amazing to meet you and I’m so glad you had a wonderful time in our city! I hope we can meet up with each other again soon in the near future! We may just have to come and visit you this time! 😀

*it didn’t send the entire comment, so here we go again*
YAAAS! I have been waiting for this post and it was so awesome to read. I felt like I was discovering Toronto again by myself all over 😀 I am so happy you liked it and met great people and got to a blogger meet up (as I said, I cannot eat with chopsticks either. I can relate SO MUCH). I cannot wait for the other installments on this series!!!
(if you like baseball now but don’t like it on TV, maybe try the TV show Pitch? They instigate it beautifully and make it look far more interesting on the screen!!)

Chopsticks just need to adapt to our ineptitude of handling them. How do people make it look so easy?? I’m in the middle of writing my Ottawa one as we speak so keep an eye out for that. I’ve not heard of Pitch, but I’m a sucker for anything sports related!!

Yes!! Chopsticks need to get on our level!! And I am so ready for your new post already 😀
Pitch was such a brilliant show, I am still bitter they cancelled it after only one season. It was about the first black woman in major league baseball. It’s phenomenal!! (but obviously Fox was the wrong network for it …)